W is for Writer

 In seventh grade, my English teacher, Miss Lee, introduced me to creative writing. In eighth grade, when I had to create a career booklet, I declared my intention to become a writer. 

At that time, I thought I'd want to work for a magazine. Even then, I didn't see myself loving the daily deadlines that came with newspaper work. In addition, as a middle schooler and Teen magazine subscriber, I was much more interested in fashion and human interest than the news (it never occurred to me to consider Time or Newsweek).

Somewhere along the way, my interest in psychology took root and, when I went to college, I abandoned my pursuit of writing in favor of a degree in psychology. It wasn't until I changed districts eight years into my career as a school counselor, moving from a full-time position to a part-time position, that I began to seriously consider writing again. In fact, it was my sister who reminded me that I'd always wanted to write, and that working four days a week instead of five presented me with precisely that opportunity.

And so, the summer before I started my new position in my new school district, I got serious about writing. I submitted work on spec, launching the freelancing portion of my writing career.

For the next nineteen years, I continued submitting my work. I took some correspondence courses through The Institute of Children's Literature and the Long Ridge Writers Group, along with a course on freelancing offered by my local library. I joined Pennwriters and went to conferences and joined a critique group. I began branching out, writing two books for school counselors and two novels, as well as trying my hand at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and Camp NoWriMo (the pared-down July version). I got accepted into Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature's One-on-One Plus on the strength of the first ten pages of my first novel. 

The first novel got nibbles but, in the end, failed to attract an agent or a publisher. The second one got me an agent. I met her at a conference in Lewisburg, one I'd attended as much as an excuse to visit the town where I'd lived for six years during college and grad school as to network with other writers and publishing professionals. Together, we got that book published.

Ten years ago, when I retired ahead of schedule, all of my colleagues assumed I'd write full-time. Indeed, I wanted to do just that, and I set out to ramp up the writing (and the paychecks) but, by then, I knew that writing full-time was unlikely to earn me enough money to pay the bills, let alone tackle the next big thing on my list: paying for college for my daughter. 

After a year of teaching other people about writing (and organizing) and submitting my work anywhere I thought it might find a home, I got offered a job teaching psychology and I took it.

I started out teaching one class but, over time, the job grew to fill my schedule as I took on (and later proposed) other courses. Now, nine years in, the part time job has grown to a nearly full-time pursuit, relegating writing (once again) to a side hustle.

Five (and a half) novels (three published), three non-fiction books and a slew (that's the technical term) of blogs and articles later, a side hustle doesn't feel like a bad deal. While there are definitely weeks when I get frustrated over my lack of available writing time, I'm grateful that I don't have to depend on my writing to pay the bills. This has, in fact, been something my writing accountability partner (a friend and fellow writer) and I have been talking about quite a bit lately. We're on the same page (so to speak) -- the one that says that the joy of writing is better preserved when we write as a matter of choice rather than as a matter of necessity.

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And that first novel? The one that went nowhere? That's my NaNoWriMo project for 2022. I learned long ago that the traditional NaNoWriMo goal of a novel in 30 days isn't a good fit for me but I've also learned that writing alongside other writers is. So, this month, I'll be turning my attention back to some of the first characters I created, and trying out a new platform to see if it's a good fit for them (and for me). 

Sometime between the time I started writing this post this morning and the time I got back to it after class to get it finished and posted, my dad texted me to wish me a Happy National Author's Day. I'd like to say I planned this post accordingly but, the truth is that I'd forgotten that today is, indeed, a day to celebrate and encourage writers. 

Seems like a great day to get that new project underway.

A Writer's Life

Conger Design via Pixabay

Writing a book is hard. So many pages to fill. So much pressure, both external and self-imposed. In fiction, sometimes the characters don't cooperate (although sometimes that's fun). In non-fiction, sometimes the ideas don't come (which is less fun).

Other thoughts, however, are often in full swing. That was terrible. You can't write that. No one wants to read this. What makes you think you can write this book? You really didn't think this through, did you? You think that is good? 

Ah, yes. Self-doubt. It's enough to send us running to wash the dishes, rearrange the furniture, clean the basement. Anything sounds better than staying put and facing a blank screen that just stares back, or worse yet, somehow manages to berate and belittle.

One part of the writing process that is completely wonderful, however, is the idea stage. In the idea stage, anything is possible. "I don't know" is an acceptable response, as are things like "I haven't quite worked that out yet" and "That part is still tentative." Timelines, synopses detailed chapter outlines and logical flow are banned. The more far-fetched and creative the notion, the better.

The idea stage is non-threatening, innocuous. There's no judgment or fear, there are no wrong answers or bad ideas. It's a wonderful, relaxing, exhilarating place to be.

Unfortunately, it, like summer vacation, is fleeting.

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Eventually, the idea stage must yield to the writing-a-book stage. There, nose-to-the-grindstone and butt-in-chair meet self-doubt, generating a healthy sprinkling of procrastination.

It's the job we hate to love. Or love to hate. Either way, it's the one we can't imagine not doing and so the line between the real world and the one we put on paper blurs, each inspiring the other in unpredictable ways. Guilt nudges relaxation out of the way and drags effort, kicking and screaming, to its feet, with no regard for time of day, month or year.

It's lovely to imagine writers typing away at Starbucks, writing away in notebooks, dreaming up stories. It's even lovelier to imagine that all of those words make perfect sense and weave seamless stories immediately upon contact with the page.

But that would be fiction.

The truth is, some days, writing is a job with the same ups and downs and joys and sorrow of any other job (minus the paid vacations and health insurance).

But during the idea stage and on those days when the words flow, it has benefits of its own. They may be less practical than health insurance, but they offer a sustenance all their own.

Alexa's Fotos via Pixabay

He? She? They?

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About two weeks ago, in presenting some of the changes in its latest Stylebook, Associated Press "opened the door" to using "they" as a singular pronoun. The Stylebook emphasizes that this is only for the sake of clarity, to be used when a write-around isn't possible.

My middle school English teacher is, I am sure, lamenting this change, perhaps even wearing black as she mourns the days of antecedent-pronoun agreement.

Although I'm inclined to agree with her, I have mixed feelings. In writing, one person is never "they" -- at least not in usage considered correct until two weeks ago -- but in spoken language, we do this frequently. So much so, in fact, that I find myself giving my green pen a workout as I grade papers from college students intent on transferring spoken language onto the page. And, as I "correct" their work, I can't help but notice the irony of moving from something that flows to something unwieldy.

I get it. It's easier this way.

But is easier always better? I know that common usage often dictates grammatical change, and has dealt near-death blows to things like the subjunctive case and the proper usage of "myriad." And I, for one, love bending the rules by doing things like beginning a sentence with "and" or "because." Or perhaps using a fragment for effect. And I hate worrying about whether the usage I've been taught has expired by the time I go to put it on the page.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

Or maybe I think that a rule shouldn't change just because a bunch of people are doing it wrong, and so now it makes sense to throw the rule out the window. Are we dealing with the verbal equivalent of all of my friends jumped off the bridge, so now I'm jumping too?

I know. Much ado about nothing. No lives in actual danger here.

But for writers, the danger is palpable. Believe it or not, we agonize over things like comma placement, whether the period goes inside or outside the quotation marks and whether or not the word we selected was the right one from among the hundreds or thousands or millions available.

So, for writers, changes like this are the emotional equivalent of ripping up the rulebook and using it for confetti.

For now, I will stick to what I've been taught. For me, that creates clarity, even if it makes the workarounds complex at times.

And, in addition, I will give thanks for copyeditors because they are the decoders who make balance between change and consistency possible.

Friday Feature: Writing for Free and Girls Vs. Boys

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It's no secret that writers love to write. What's not as well-known is just how often we write for free.

I knew this was common among my friends who, like me, are still trying to make the leap from unknown writer to known writer. We're advised to build a platform, get our writing out there wherever possible, create our own press releases and promotional materials, and we convince ourselves that doing these things for ourselves is still a better deal than chipping away at royalty checks to pay someone else to do it.

But there were two things I didn't realize. Writers who've made the leap from unknown to known still write for free. And there's even evidence that strongly suggest that it matters whether you're a man or a woman.

I remember being surprised when I discovered that Carolyn Keene, author of the Nancy Drew books, was actually more than one person, and that the books weren't always written by female writers.

But why good writing alone isn't sufficient more than fifty years later is a mystery to me.

Virtually Satisfying and then Some

Photo credit: Gwen Moran

Last evening, I went to a party. It was a beautiful night to celebrate a beautiful victory, and to top it all off, I met one of my Facebook friends.

Sounds silly, I know, but we writers have plenty of colleagues we've met only online. In my case, there was a real-world connection (mutual real-world friends), but in many cases, there isn't. Virtual colleagues meet online and cultivate relationships there as well.

Writing is a great gig, and for many writers, it's not only all we want to do, it's all we've ever wanted to do. But it's a solo gig, and one that non-writers don't fully understand. Conferences offer opportunities for face-to-face meetings with kindred spirits, but these come all too infrequently. As imperfect a medium as it may be, Facebook helps close that gap.

Don't get me wrong. My real-world friends are great supporters of my writing, and I appreciate them tremendously. But those colleagues that people engaged in other professions meet at the office? Writers don't have them. We're the only ones in our offices. Mostly, it's better that way, because it's the only way things get done.

But sometimes, we need to bounce an idea off someone who understands the industry. Or ask a question. Or commiserate over the unfairness of celebrity authors who can't actually write or the insurmountability of blank pages and rough drafts. Maybe even get out of our own little worlds and see what life's like.

That's where our virtual colleagues come in.

And it's pretty cool when Facebook friends turn out to be even better in the real world than in the virtual world. Last night, my virtual-turned-real-world colleague and I got to talk about writing in real time in the real world. Our daughters teamed up to play a mean game of ladder ball and together, we all celebrated a young lady's triumph over cancer. All in all, a great night.

Score one for the real world.

Writers' Group Wednesday

My critique group meets tonight, which officially makes this my favorite Wednesday of the month We are single/married/parents/grandparents/young/young-at-heart, fiction/non-fiction/article/ novel/poetry writers. Some of us have been critiquing one another's work for twenty years or more; others have been with the group less than five. We're respectful in a no-holds-barred kind of way; that's the beauty of growing together as writers.

Lately, our group has been having trouble getting together. Life circumstances, family obligations and crazy schedules have gutted our last few meetings. I'm always sad when that happens. When we don't meet, I miss not just the perspectives on writing this group provides, but the people as well. We've entrusted one another with one of our most personal possessions -- our words on the page -- and along the way, relationships have grown up around those words.

In some ways, this group is like the small groups I ran for my elementary school students. There's a camaraderie and a level of trust that develops as a result of sharing time and talent, publishing contracts and rejection letters, births and deaths and retirements. And though confidentiality is not mandated, it is, in many cases, assumed -- both for the words on the page and the events of our lives. Together, we have centuries of experience as readers and writers, and these common bonds connect us.

Some critique groups are genre-specific: all poets, all screen writers, all novelists. This group is not. Most of us have at least one longer work-in-progress -- usually fiction, but sometimes non-fiction -- among our monthly submissions, but they vary widely. Sometimes, I feel a little out of my league, as I sit, pen in hand, reading works that are outside the realm of what I'd choose off a bookstore shelf. Consequently, I sometimes critique more as a reader than a writer, marking both the spots that sing and those that trigger dissonance.

I know beyond any doubt that I owe my publishing contracts to this group. The books may have my name on them, but without this group, those books would be sitting on my hard drive, rather than gracing bookstore shelves and catalog pages. Without this group, I'd have found the editing process leading up to publication much more heartbreaking because I wouldn't have learned that editing a book is like pruning a rosebush -- when it's done right, it makes the blooms more beautiful.

As writers, we sometimes struggle to decide which words are flowers and which ones are weeds. Though I've gotten much better at that over two decades of writing, sometimes I miss a few weeds, mistaking them for wildflowers. This group tells me which ones need to be yanked and which ones should be bulldozed so that the ones that remain have room to grow and tell their story.

We don't always agree when it comes to weeding one another's word gardens, but that's part of the beauty of the group. Writing is, after all, an art, requiring a combination of personal experience and collective wisdom.

In the end, the writer sits alone before a screen, deciding what to keep and what to excise. But one Wednesday a month, this writer is lucky enough to sit in a room with a group of people who love writing as much as she does.

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening.

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A Tisket, A Tasket, My Book is in a Basket

Is it still Wednesday? Yeah, I didn't think so.

It's been a busy week. As my body struggles to adjust to the extra hour of sleep (which puts me off schedule and leaves me inexplicably tired for a week or more after I've finished moving clock hands), life goes on.

Lately, part of life has been book promotion. Although a writer's main task is, not surprisingly, to write, promotion is also -- always -- part of the deal once a writer is fortunate enough to see her work in print. Publishers help a little in the promo game, but the book that is the author's baby is merely one inhabitant of the nursery for the publisher, who, like the author, is also busy conceiving the future population of that nursery.

I'm one of those crazy writers who enjoys promotion. I don't like the time it takes away from working on my next book, but I decided early on that if I couldn't escape it (and I can't), I might as well  have fun with it. Over the past year, through a combination of research and experience, I've developed three rules for promoting a book: make it novel, make it meaningful and make it fun.

1. Make it novel -- no pun intended (well, maybe a little). I love bookstores. The fact that they're full of readers makes them a great, if predictable, place to have a book event. But they're also full of books, and it can be hard to stand out. Choosing less typical locales for book events not only makes an author stand out, but also keeps things interesting.
2. Make it meaningful. Anyone who knows me knows I love Starbucks, and most of my friends know that Starbucks is often my office away from home.  So, when some of the work I created there made it into print, it seemed like a great place to have a party. (Sometimes it helps to be a regular). Not only did it fulfill rule #1 above, but the location (and the people who work there) meant something to me, which meant the whole event felt like a natural extension of who I am and what I love.
3. Make it fun. If creating promotional events and ideas feels like drudgery to me, it will feel like drudgery to those around me as well. Sure, I mumbled and grumbled as I was making up gift baskets for my latest harebrained scheme, but that was just my perfectionism rearing its ugly head. And I had to stifle a few groans as I added up the cost of the prizes for my online launch party, but I had a great time coming up with things that complemented the book both thematically and visually. Book parties, promotions and events are meant to be celebrations, and celebrations are meant to be fun.

Are you wondering about my latest novel, meaningful and fun promotion yet? If so, check back on Saturday for details. Can't wait that long? Stop by Bluett Bros. Violins, Book Ends or EPIC: A Michael Alan Salon and take a look around. Meanwhile, the picture below is a hint. :-)

Same Name, New Location!

Happy Mother's Day! It's absolutely gorgeous here today, with weather that reminds me of the Memorial Day weekend three years ago when I sat on the porch swing at my sister- and brother-in-law's house and wrote my first blog. After nearly three years at my old (online) location, I've decided to try out a new location here at Blogger.

I've been struggling to keep up with my blog, and so my new location seemed a good place to try out my new approach ~ shorter entries. Those of you who know me and have followed my blogs and my life are probably laughing uproariously, since I can't order dinner at Wendy's in less than a paragraph of text, but I am going to give it my best shot.

Last weekend marked a year that I met my agent, Diana Flegal and lots of other great folks (hi Mary, Suellen, Jan and Loree!) at the Susquehanna Valley Writers Conference in Lewisburg, and appropriately enough, I joined The Susquehanna Writers blog pretty close to that anniversary date. If you haven't been there yet, check it out at http://thesusquehannawriters.blogspot.com/ to get news and info from lots of other Central PA writers, including info on book releases. And, if you live in Central PA and haven't checked out the Susquehanna Valley Writers Conference in Lewisburg, mark your calendars for the first weekend in October. As a Bucknell grad, I can vouch for the fact that Lewisburg is especially beautiful in the fall.

In keeping with my shorter posts mantra, I'm signing off!!

Lisa Lawmaster Hess is the author of Acting Assertively and Diverse Divorce. Her articles appear frequently in Central Penn Parent.